The Verge

Image: Artifact Artifact, the AI-powered news app from Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, has a new feature that makes it even more of a news-focused social media app. With the latest version of the Artifact app, you can now follow individual writers. Articles from those writers will be prioritized in your feed and you can opt to get notifications when those writers post.Writers can also claim their profiles on Artifact to get a verified checkmark beside their name in search and in Artifact’s comments. (Writers can only claim profiles on iOS, but it’s coming to Android soon, Systrom tells The Verge.) Yes, Artifact lets users comment on individual articles, meaning those comments live outside of stories that may already have comment... Continue reading…

The Clip Editor allows you to quickly grab sections of your livestream and edit them effectively for vertical video formats. | Image: Twitch Twitch is launching a new web-based desktop clips editing tool to help streamers grow their audience by sharing curated snippets of their content to other platforms. The aptly named Clip Editor tool is rolling out today, allowing users to easily edit livestream footage directly from the Clip Manager in the Twitch Creator Dashboard.Streamers can use the Clip Editor tool to convert their recording to a portrait mode orientation at the click of a button, suitable for vertical video platforms like TikTok. Those clips can also be directly exported to YouTube Shorts within Clip Manager. Image: Twitch You can only upload directly to YouTube Shorts for now, but the edited clips can also be saved for use on other... Continue reading…

The seat on certain Peloton bikes may break during use. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Peloton is eager for people to know it’s more than “that bike company.” Unfortunately, those bikes are at the heart of the beleaguered fitness company’s latest woes. Today, Peloton and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a voluntary recall of 2.2 million Peloton Bikes after 35 reports of seats either breaking or falling off during use.A Bloomberg report offers some more details about the faulty seat. Namely, the part that attaches the seat to the bike frame could potentially break off at the welding joint. Of the 35 reports, 13 resulted in injuries, including a fractured wrist, lacerations, and bruises.The affected bikes were sold at Peloton and Dick’s Sporting Goods retail and online stores as well as on Amazon.... Continue reading…

Image: Raycast Raycast, the full-featured launcher for Mac, has announced an $8 per month Pro subscription (billed annually) that adds new AI and syncing features, along with the option for unlimited clipboard history, as reported by MacStories.The Pro subscription expands on Raycast’s existing launcher functionalities, which are quite extensive. It replaces the app’s existing search bar with “Quick AI,” allowing you to ask it to come up with blog post titles, solve programming problems, and more.You can copy and paste the answer into whatever you’re working on or bring your conversation into Raycast’s new AI Chat feature. This AI-powered chatbot lives in a resizable window that you can toggle with an assignable hotkey.There are also new AI... Continue reading…

The tail of a dead beached whale is seen on Rockaway beach on December 13th, 2022, in the Queens borough of New York City. | Photo by Bryan Bedder / Getty Images Whales are washing up along the east coast of the US. Offshore wind opponents blame future wind farms. Experts see a different threat. Continue reading…

Image: Volvo Volvo announced that it was delaying production for its next-generation flagship electric SUV, the 2024 EX90, citing a need for further “software testing and development.”The EX90, a seven-seater luxury family-mover with 300 miles of range and a starting price under $80,000, was expected to go into production in late 2023 and hit showroom floors in early 2024. Now production won’t start until the first half of 2024, the Swedish automaker said in a statement. That likely means customers won’t take delivery until the second half of the year.“Demand for the Volvo EX90 remains high and to ensure a high-quality introduction of the car and to maximize customer benefit from its technology from day 1, Volvo Cars needs additional time in... Continue reading…

The 7A’s lovely coral color is exclusive to the Google Store, but it also comes in charcoal, light blue, and white elsewhere. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Google actually did it. It made a new, very good, fairly affordable midrange phone and started shipping it right away. And not only is the Pixel 7A already released into the world for you to buy but also you can have your pick of some nice deals and early bird incentives. When you pick up the new Pixel 7A for its regular $499 price, Google is throwing in a $100 credit toward a pair of Pixel Buds (making the Pixel Buds A-Series free or the noise-canceling Pixel Buds Pro $99.99) and a free Case-Mate case (a $25 value). Meanwhile, retailers like Best Buy and Amazon are offering a $50 gift card with your purchase.The 7A costs $50 more than the Pixel 6A it replaces, but that extra money nets some nice upgrades like wireless charging, a... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is skipping raises for salaried employees this year. In an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees that only hourly workers will receive raises and blamed the move on the uncertain state of the economy.“We are clear that we are helping drive a major platform shift in this new era of AI, and doing so in a dynamic, competitive environment while also facing global macroeconomic uncertainties,” Nadella wrote. “We must maintain a leadership position in our at-scale businesses of today, generating enough yield to invest and lead in the next wave, while staying on the frontiers of both performance and efficiency.”While Microsoft will still offer salaried employees bonuses and stock awards,... Continue reading…

Image: Apple One of Apple TV Plus’ biggest series is coming back for a second season this summer. Today, the streamer announced that season 2 of Foundation — the sci-fi epic based on the stories of Isaac Asimov — will premiere on July 14th. The new season will be 10 episodes long, with new episodes dropping on Fridays, and you can get a brief taste in the debut teaser trailer above.Foundation debuted back in 2021 and was notable in particular for its complexity, with a story that spanned multiple centuries. The second season will continue that tradition by taking place quite a long time after the first. Here’s the description:

Photo by Zeng Hui / Xinhua via Getty Images Nintendo is a company whose success ebbs and flows. The glory days give way to lean periods, but things inevitably rebound. It happens in cycles. The quiet times of the GameCube gave way to the breakout mainstream popularity of the Wii. The humbling days of the Wii U are what paved the way for the transformative success of the Switch. And now, on the eve of the launch of what could be the biggest game of the year, we might just be seeing Nintendo at the peak of its powers.What’s notable about this particular moment is how it extends beyond video games. It started earlier in the year when Nintendo launched Super Nintendo World in Los Angeles, a theme park attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. (It followed a similar attraction in... Continue reading…

Image: Chipolo Google’s freshly expanded Find My Device platform has two new trackers coming from Chipolo: the One Point key finder and the Card Point wallet finder. While these trackers are dedicated to Google’s location tracking service, Chipolo also offers similar One Spot and Card Spot trackers for Apple’s Find My service.The names here are fairly self-explanatory. The new One Point wallet finder resembles a thick credit card that slips into your purse or wallet, while the key finder is a puck-shaped keyring. The latter is small enough to use in other circumstances though, such as keeping tabs on your luggage, bike, or even on a pet collar. Image: Chipolo The Card Point tracker doesn’t look too bulky compared to a standard... Continue reading…

A coal power plant in Texas in 2017 that became the first in the US to add carbon capture technology. | Photo by Luke Sharrett / Bloomberg via Getty Images The Environmental Protection Agency proposed new rules for power plants today that are supposed to clean up pollution. But instead of encouraging more renewable energy growth, the proposal would actually help keep polluting coal and gas plants online.The proposed mandate requires existing power plants to start limiting their carbon dioxide emissions in 2030, introducing restrictions that would become more stringent over time. Any new gas power plants would have to comply with pollution caps as soon as they’re built. A fact sheet from the agency says it decided not to update rules for new coal plants since it doesn’t anticipate new coal facilities to come online, which are more expensive and polluting than gas plants.The proposed rules... Continue reading…

It’s actually kinda cute for a simple black-and-silver design. | Image: Canon Canon is finally stepping into the vlogging camera arena, and it’s doing so with a quirky new point-and-shoot geared toward a mindless “set-it-and-forget-it” crowd I’m not sure exists. The $429.99 Canon PowerShot V10 is an adorable little camera about the size of an extra-thick deck of cards that packs a fixed 19mm equivalent f/2.8 lens and marries it to a 20.9-megapixel one-inch-type sensor.It records 4K at up to 30 fps and is geared toward filming yourself with an articulating screen, front and rear record buttons, stereo mics with a 3.5mm mic jack, a Micro HDMI port, digital image stabilization, and a kickstand for propping it up. It’s expected to launch in June.More YouTube than TikTokWhat makes the V10 interesting is its... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In a new support document, Twitter has detailed what you can expect from the first version of the platform’s encrypted direct messages. Perhaps most notably, to be able to send and receive encrypted messages, you’ll have to pay Twitter for the ability to do so. Platforms like WhatsApp, Messenger, Signal, and iMessage already offer encrypted messaging for free, so having to pay for the feature on Twitter might be a hard pill to swallow.According to the document, encrypted DMs are only available if you are a verified user (somebody who pays for Twitter Blue), a verified organization (an organization that pays $1,000 per month), or an affiliate of a verified organization (which costs $50 per month per person). Both the sender and... Continue reading…

Unlike the Pixel 6A, the Pixel 7A offers 7.5W wireless charging. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge The new Pixel Fold wasn’t the only smartphone Google introduced during this year’s Google I/O keynote. The budget-friendly Pixel 7A, a phone that essentially functions as a stripped-down version of last year’s Pixel 7, is already available at multiple retailers for $499.At 6.1 inches, Google’s latest Pixel phone is just as small as its predecessor, the Pixel 6A, but this year, it comes with a few extra perks not present on the last-gen model. That includes support for wireless charging, a new chipset, and a higher-refresh display for smoother scrolling — factors that surely play into the phone’s $50 price increase.Of course, despite the extra features, there are some tradeoffs you’ll still have to make if you plan on buying the Pixel... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney is combining Hulu and Disney Plus into a single streaming app. During Disney’s Q2 earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Bob Iger announced that the company is going to create a “one-app experience” within the US and said that it’s raising the price of its ad-free plan, which currently costs $10.99 per month.“While we continue to offer Disney plus Hulu and ESPN plus as standalone options, this is a logical progression of our DTC [direct-to-consumer] offerings that will provide greater opportunities for advertisers while giving bundle subscribers access to more robust and streamlined content, resulting in greater audience engagement and ultimately leading to a more unified streaming experience,” Iger said.He continued, “Meanwhile, the... Continue reading…

Another big ultrawide curved gaming monitor has entered. | Image: LG LG has put its latest massive curved gaming monitor up for sale in the US, and it’s here to undercut Samsung’s standard Odyssey G9 by $200. The company’s new UltraGear 49-inch costs $1,299.99 on LG’s online store and includes the important gaming features like 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time on deck, along with the crucial RGB lighting on the rear to kick-start your picturesque gamer nightclub vibe.Now, this new LG UltraGear isn’t supposed to be cutting-edge in display technology like the company’s 45-inch OLED offering or Samsung’s QD-OLED and “8K” Mini-LED Odyssey gaming monitors. And it doesn't have the bending gimmicks of the LG Flex. Instead, this new LG is here to compare to Samsung’s immersive and already-proven regular... Continue reading…

Image: Warner Bros. Animation Babylon 5 is coming back as an animated movie, series creator J. Michael Straczynski revealed last week, and today The Hollywood Reporter has the exclusive on what it’s about: Sheridan traveling through the multiverse in search of a way home.The basic synopsis, via THR:

Image: Google Google announced a slew of new features that will be available to cars with native Android software, including YouTube, Waze, and video conferencing apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Webex by Cisco. Video games are coming to Android-equipped cars. The company also announced plans to create an “Android for Car Apps Library” for third-party developers to build their own apps for Android-equipped cars.But the announcement that streaming video and virtual meeting tools are coming to infotainment screens is sure to pique the most interest among Android users.Google teased the ability to watch YouTube videos while sitting in your parked vehicle last year. Now, the company is saying the feature will be available “in the coming weeks”... Continue reading…

Image: Google In a world increasingly filled with photorealistic images that have either been altered with AI editing tools or created using a generative AI bot like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion, how do you know if a picture is real? One thing that could help is a new tool Google is rolling out this summer for English-language searches in the US called “About this image.”It’s similar to the “about this” drop-down that appears on links in regular search results but is now available in Google image searches. When you perform a “reverse image search” by uploading an image of unknown provenance, you’ll now see a menu option that lets you find out when that picture and others similar to it were first indexed by Google — as well as where on the web it... Continue reading…

Screenshot: Emma Roth / The Verge Google is launching a new AI-powered coding bot for Android developers. During its I/O event on Wednesday, Google announced that the tool, called Studio Bot, will help developers build apps by generating code, fixing errors, and answering questions about Android.According to Google, the bot is built on Codey, the company’s new foundational coding model that stems from its updated PaLM 2 large language model (LLM). Studio Bot supports both the Kotlin and Java programming languages and will live directly in the toolbar on Android Studio. There, developers can get quick answers to their questions or even have the bot debug a portion of their code. Screenshot: Emma Roth / The Verge While Google notes that developers... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is making generative AI tools available to Play Store developers in an attempt to make it easier for them to build out their app listings. It’s one of a pair of AI-powered features Google is announcing for its Android app store at its I/O developer conference today, alongside a new review summary feature that will use AI to summarize app reviews. Other features include a machine translation feature for listings and new options for promoting apps.The search giant is characterizing the generative AI tool as an experimental feature that’s designed to make drafting a listing easier. “Just open our AI helper, enter a couple of prompts like audience and key theme, and it will generate a draft you can edit, discard, or use,” its blog... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Google plans to tease the future of Search, Pixel devices, and more at what’s expected to be an AI-heavy event. Continue reading…

Screenshot: Emma Roth / The Verge Google just finished up its I/O keynote, where it announced some pretty major updates to its Pixel lineup and showed off its latest advances in AI. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the event live, we’ve rounded up all of the biggest news that came out of the Google I/O keynote.Three new additions to the Pixel lineup Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google’s Pixel hardware took center stage during the keynote, as the company launched three new products: the Pixel Fold, the Pixel Tablet, and the budget-friendly Pixel 7A.The $1,799 Pixel Fold marks Google’s first entry into the foldable scene, featuring a 5.8-inch OLED outer screen that unfurls to reveal a larger 7.6-inch display that also is an OLED panel with a... Continue reading…

Image: ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images Fans of Frank Ocean lost thousands of dollars after a scammer sold them fake AI-generated songs, according to a report from Motherboard. It was only a matter of time.The scammer made off with around $13,000 CAD by selling a collection of bogus “leaked” tracks by the artist to a Discord server of his fans. To build trust, the scammer reportedly shared one real unreleased Frank Ocean song on Discord and then jumped at the opportunity when they saw that fans couldn’t tell the difference between the real track and a fake one.“We now live in a world where nobody knows if a song is made by the artist or by a robot,” a member of the Discord told Motherboard.This is one of the most urgent problems with AI-generated songs for artists and... Continue reading…